Side Street Studio Blog
Pottery with a touch of Jazz
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Potter & Jazz Musician John Robertson writes:
“As a self supporting professional potter and since graduating from art school in 1976, my partner Harriet and I moved to Cobble Hill and established our studio; Cobble Hill Pottery in 1988. We have enjoyed our life of carrying on a time honored traditional handcraft with a huge scope for personal creative experimentation and fun!”
“During my career I have followed my passion through the clay world, working in earthenware, reduction stoneware, and raku and primitive firings. This current body of work consists of high fired, reduction stoneware, glazed in a palette of personally formulated glazes perfected during my years of experimentation. I enjoy utilizing brushes I construct consisting of various animal hair glued and wired to bamboo, to apply combinations of oxides and under glazes to enrich and enliven the glazed surfaces.”
“My work is mainly thrown on the wheel, altered and trimmed while damp, then bisque fired once dry. Some of my regular production items are made by flattening clay with a slab roller and then formed over a plaster or Styrofoam hump mold; while damp they can be decorated with stamps I have carved from wood or plaster. After the initial bisque firing the foot of each piece is coated in glaze-resistant emulsion and then dipped into the liquid glaze. At this point the oxide brush work, scraffito, glaze-on-glaze, wax- resist brushwork, or other decoration is done. The downdraft propane kiln is then carefully loaded, taking all of its idiosyncratic hot and cold spots (where only certain glaze combinations will reach temperature) into account”.
“An overnight warming is started to lessen the occasion for pots cracking and then a 12 hour firing to reach maximum temperature of 2350 degrees F., the kiln is then quick cooled to 1800* to achieve the desired glaze effects. The kiln needs at least 24 hours to cool before it is opened, the pots removed, the bottoms sanded to ensure furniture friendly texture and carried to the showroom. From there each piece of pottery will set out into the world.”
“When time allows I also work in other mediums, painting, mixed media wall pieces, assemblages with wood and metal. These are a creative outlet as well as fun. The other passion in my creative life is as a jazz musician playing the string bass with different jazz bands in the Cowichan Valley and Victoria area”…
You can find more of John’s beautiful and functional work at http://www.sidestreetstudio.com/catalog/index.php?manufacturers_id=80499
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